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Sunday, September 18, 2011

When I bring the word ‘Hippie’ out, what is in your mind? A group of people in 1960s with the colorful clothes? Or a group of people hole the peace sign and are always happy?

I did the research about the hippies and in general it is divided into two parts. One part is about the way hippies dress, and the other part is about their lifestyle. Hippies “possess a core belief set revolving around the values of peace and love as being essential in an increasingly globalized society, and they are oftentimes associated with non-violent anti-governmental groups.”(Williams,Jonathan.”Hippie”.Sep 11, 2004) I like their lifestyle. There are all about joy and happiness. At the same time, let’s move on hippies’ outfit. In my opinion, the way they dress is based on their lifestyle. They love freedom and hate restrictive. Therefore the clothes they wear has more colors and also there is no specific shapes. When I type ‘Hippie fashion’ on the searching website, the images came out is the people with the headbands, or the long dresses with the irregular edges.

In the fashion trend today, designers is bring more and more hippie scene into the high fashion world. “Folkloric motifs, style, and fabrics were ubiquitous in hippie fashion.”(Steele,Valerie. “The Berg Companiob to Fashion”.book. Page 417.”Hippie style”.) Especially for the folkloric motifs. That is a big part of the new fashion.

Have you ever heard Tie Dye? If you have, do you know it is a part of hippie fashion also? ”Tie-dye describes a pattern of color made by preventing the dye from reaching some areas of the fabric by using tight ties of rubber bands, sinew, string, etc”(“Tie-Dye”.2011)

Sunday, September 11, 2011

In 40’s of Cali, the swimwear started getting in the women’s world. Designer Margit Fellegi designed a swimsuit for Cole of California. She was hired by Fred Cole who stared the company Cole of California. “Fellegi had developed a “Matletex process” which allowed any natural fiber fabric and primarily cotton. This process allowed Fellegi to manipulate the style lines of her swimsuit designs without sacrificing a close fit. Fellege’s combination of distinct patterns, vibrant colors and unusual design lines caught the eye of both film stars and average women.”(newsletter. 3 Jun 2011.Swimsuits, Beachwear, History & Vintage References Margit Felligi and Cole of California)

This picture is showing the one of the designs from Margit Fellegi and it called the “Swoon Suit”.

You can see this kind of swimsuit has the high wist. It is the skinniest part of women’s body. Fellegi took advantage of it, made bottom wist line stop there. So that the women’s body can be perfect showed off. As a fashion designer, I think that was a really smart design. Also the bottom was folded. Fellegi created a nice pattern by folding it. "Women no longer should feel undressed in a bathing suit. After all, more and more social functions are centered around swimming pools and beach clubs. I try to make a woman feel lovely and elegant without making her aware of how naked she is."(By Margit Fellegi, 1965). She totally did what she said. The pattern she designed on the bottom of swimsuit made it looks not too simple and looks fashionable.

Right now in California, girls have bikinis. Even if bikinis came out in 40‘s. But it is not popular at that time. It “consisted of little more than two triangles of fabric for the bra, with strings that tied around the neck and back, and two triangles of fabric for the bottom,connected by strings at the hips.” (Webber-Hanchett, Tiffany. "Bikini.") But at that time, we are open enough. Girls cared about how pretty they look when they had swimsuit on. Just like what Fellegi said, they do not want to feel naked. Now, we are more open than before. Girls want to show their skin more than show the design of the swimsuit. That’s why girls more and more like bikinis.

So I look up the pictures of “swoon suit” again. I found out the design of this kind of swimsuit fully conforms the fashion trend. If we change it to a different type of fabric, and put the boots on, this design could be the outwear.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

I have been to LACMA few times with my friend last year. That was the one of the greatest experiences I had in my first college year. When I first time walked in LACMA, I could smell the art. I’ve never had that feeling before. Be honestly, I haven't been visited any kinds of art museums until i got in the college. Because before I got in Otis, I did not take art seriously at all. Drawing and sketching were just my hobbies. They were not the part of my life but the part of the decorations of my life. So I was able to throw the part of my ‘decoration’ away. But right now, I can not live without it.

I feel like art in Los angeles include everything. I think it because LA is a big city. There were lost foreigners who is form all different countries. At same time they brought and they are still bringing more and more different culture to here. The culture turned to art and art became to LA art. Los Angeles is big. The people separate at many place. For instance, before I got my car, if I wanna got to downtown, I took me three hours to get there by bus. I feel like LA art just likes the people in LA. If you wanna see a particular art which you really like, you might have to go find the right place for it. My roommate is from New York. She does Graffiti. When she just moved to here she told me she couldn’t find any graffiti here and it was not like New York, you can see Graffiti everywhere. That first I thought she was right. But after half semester, we know more and more about LA, we found out that actually there was lots Graffiti in LA. We just need go to the right place to find it.

I attended a gallery opening last school year with my roommate. I saw lots different kind of style art. There was Graffiti, there was oil painting and there was pencil drawing. There was a white boy with his asian style piece too. That was a good example for LA art.

I found this picture online. I think it can fully explain the ART in LA. It has asian culture. But also it has street art.

This is my second year study in Otis. I’m exited about my major fashion design. I am sophomore now, but I still feel like a foundation in the fashion campus. Everything is new for me again. For my future, I’m gonna finish my 3 more years college, and then go to New york. I might go to a new fashion school. I just wanna learn more stuff about fashion and get more experience.